Good afternoon!
Lots of news and stories from across the region this fortnight, including why Indian men are afraid of vasectomies and how Cambodia’s ‘Friday wives’ are pushing for political change.
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Afghanistan
When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August last year, members of the women’s national soccer team fled to Australia. Now, they are back on the pitch.
Australia
Swimming Australia has threatened legal action over billboards claiming ‘women’s sport is not for men’, targeting transgender women athletes.
Bangladesh
Tea production and export is booming in Bangladesh, but plantation workers are living on the margins. Women bear the heaviest burden, concentrated in the lowest paid plucking roles and shouldering most unpaid domestic care work.
Cambodia
For two years, a group of women has been picketing Phnom Penh’s courts and international embassies every Friday, demanding the release of detained family members:
Chantha’s group, a rare voice of defiance in Cambodia, are known as the “Friday wives” for their weekly protests. …
When they first began, in June 2020, the Friday wives were very nervous, say Ouk Chanthy, a garment worker whose husband is serving a 44-month prison sentence. He was one of 20 people handed sentences of up to 10 years in mid-March. “I didn’t know how advocacy works,” she says. “The first time I joined the protest, I was scared the authorities would threaten me.”
China
As China grapples with a coming demographic crisis, state media is taking aim at feminism and abortion services.
Fiji
The Fijiana Drua are revolutionising women’s rugby:
The Drua’s rugby has been breathtaking across all facets of the game – high-level conditioning, physical defence, laser-like passing, instinctive and intuitive support play, slick running and clinical finishing. After games they sing hymns for their opponents. It is a total rugby package in the spirit of “the game they play in heaven”.
India
With men still fearing vasectomy, the onus of family planning continue to fall on Indian women:
Why did Rajesh Kumar … not opt for a vasectomy, and why was his wife, Gudiya, undergoing sterilisation? A few women sitting behind him giggled on hearing the question. After a long pause, Rajesh said: "I feel scared."
Hundreds of Indigenous women are leading a fierce battle against the West Bengal government’s efforts to set up a coal mine in Birbhum district. The area has one of the world’s largest coal reserves, which an estimated 2,102 million tonnes stored underground.
Indonesia
Indonesia has taken an impressive step toward reducing high rates of cervical cancer, adding the HPV vaccine to the list of free immunisations.
Twelve women working in an illegal gold mine in North Sumatra were killed when a cliff collapsed and triggered a landslide.
Japan
Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman recognized as the world’s oldest person, has died at the age of 119, just months short of her goal of reaching 120
Japan has decided to require listed companies to disclose in their annual reports the ratio of women in management positions, in a bid to increase female leaders in the country’s male-dominated corporate world.
Malaysia
A shariah court has sentenced Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin to one week in jail for ‘insulting’ the Islamic judicial system.
Myanmar
After experiencing a taste of democracy for five years, it has become harder for women to go out alone since the 2021 coup.
Working class Burmese women say it is nearly impossible for them to get a job as a result of the coup and COVID-19.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been jailed for five years after she was found guilty of corruption, the latest in a series of widely criticised legal cases that could lead to her spending the rest of her life in detention.
Nepal
Nepal is holding local level elections on May 13, and given the number of nominations of women, especially for executive positions, women’s representation will be hugely reduced compared to the 2017 elections. On top of this, the Election Commission has stipulated that it is not mandatory for political parties to field 50% women candidates if they are contesting only one of the two top posts - chief or deputy chief.
New Zealand
Suicide is the leading cause of death during pregnancy and the postnatal period in NZ, with Māori women are three times more likely to die this way, a new report has found.
Pakistan
For the first time, the Baloch Liberation Army has used a female suicide bomber in an attack on civilians, alleging targeting officials from the Confucius Institute. Until recently, the Baloch separatists denounced suicide bombing, especially by women:
It is doubtful the minibus driver paid any attention to the inconspicuous woman standing by the roadside as he swung his vehicle into the entrance of Karachi’s Chinese cultural centre on Tuesday.
He may not have even seen the next moment, captured on CCTV, when the veiled woman, dressed in traditional clothes and facing away from the oncoming vehicle, took a tiny step sideways and detonated the explosive-laden bag she was clutching.
From sexist investor questions to missing late-night meetings, these Pakistani businesswomen are fighting an uphill battle to break into the health tech industry.
Papua New Guinea
Ten women are vying to be queen, but the Hiri Hanenamo quest isn't a beauty pageant.
The Philippines
Football is up against basketball, billiards, and boxing in the Philippines, but the women’s football team’s qualification for the 2023 tournament may change things. This is the first time a Philippines team of any gender at any age level will appear on the global stage.
Presidential candidate Leni Robredo is trying to prevent the revival of the Marcos dynasty, but is she running out of time?
Meanwhile, the daughter of current president Rodrigo Duterte, Sara Duterte-Carpio, appears likely to become the country’s next vice president, but her supporters say she’s very different to her controversial father.
Regional
Efforts to target gender disparity in Southeast Asia continue to focus on the symptoms of gender inequality rather than the causes. This is evident in the region’s labour force, with women representing around 70 per cent of the informal economy, typically working in traditional, lower paying, more vulnerable jobs.
Solomon Islands
A feminist foreign policy analysis of the new security pact between the Solomon Islands and China.
Lessons learned from the Solomons’ first female premier.
Sri Lanka
The Sri Lanka Women’s NGO Forum has called for urgent action to alleviate the impact of the country’s collapsing economy.
Thailand
About 300 Thai women have been forced into prostitution at a casino near the Thai-Myanmar border, according to a 25-year-old woman who managed to escape.
Vanuatu
Research undertaken by Monash University has found rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy to be 44.68% in Vanuatu. The study found that women who were experiencing IPV during pregnancy had worse general health, higher rates of psychological distress, and increased likelihood of suicidal thoughts and behaviours.